The long-awaited Restatement Third, Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm, Volume 1, is now available. This volume, the culmination of more than a decade of scholarly drafting, analysis, and revision, covers the basic topics of the law of torts:
- liability for intentional physical harm
- liability for negligence causing physical harm
- duty
- strict liability
- factual cause
- scope of liability (traditionally called proximate cause)
Michael D. Green, a professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, and William C. Powers, Jr., president of the University of Texas at Austin, served as the Reporters for this new Restatement. They obtained the close review of a diverse group of Advisers expert in the field and of ALI’s Members Consultative Group for the project.
“Nowhere is the complexity of U.S. law more problematic than in the area of tort law,” said Jane Stapleton, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law, an Adviser to the project, and a member of the ALI Council. “In navigating this crucial field, which involves hundreds of billions of dollars every year, American lawyers and courts have historically relied heavily on the guidance of The American Law Institute, which has now published its Third Restatement of the core principles in the field. Authored by two of the world’s most admired torts scholars, President Bill Powers and Professor Mike Green, this new magisterial work is destined to become the most influential single text in tort law in the English language.”
Volume 1 supersedes comparable provisions in the Restatement Second of Torts. It has drawn the attention of courts even before publication: e.g., the Iowa Supreme Court recently adopted sections of the new Restatement governing key principles of duty and causation (Thompson v. Kaczinski, 2009 WL 3786631). A second volume, dealing with affirmative duties, emotional harm, landowner liability, and liability of actors who retain independent contractors, will complete this work and is expected to be published in 2011.
In the Restatement tradition, this authoritative volume combines clear black-letter provisions with extensive explanatory Comments, clarifying Illustrations, and detailed Reporters’ Notes. The Comments thoroughly explain the background, rationale, and applicability of the black-letter provisions, while the Reporters’ Notes document and discuss the sources for the black letter and Comments and provide a convenient basis for further research. The text is further enhanced by tables of cases and statutes, parallel tables showing corresponding Restatement Third and Restatement Second section numbers, a table of cross-references to the West Digest System and ALR annotations, and an index. The volume will be supplemented by an annual pocket part.